AN EXCEPTIONALLY LARGE AND RARE IMPERIAL CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL 'DRAGON' DISHWanli six-character mark and of the periodBrightly and vibrantly decorated in multi-coloured enamels with two five-clawed dragons confronted within a field of scattered lotus sprigs, encircled by aruyi-head band at the cavetto, the everted rim with the 'Eight Buddhist Emblems', the base enamelled in red with a six-character reign mark within a rectangle and a band ofruyi heads, encircled by an eight-bloom lotuses, further surrounded by a border of leafy florets on a red ground, all reserved on a bluish-turquoise ground.50.2cm (19 3/4in) diam.Provenance: 明萬曆 掐絲琺琅八寶蓮雙龍紋折沿大盤 「大明萬曆年造」楷書款Provenance:Christie's Hong Kong, 22-23 March 1993, lot 570An important Taiwanese private collectionExhibited and published:Chinese Treasures from the Chang Foundation, Shoto Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2001, p.92, no.106Ching Wan Society Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition, National Museum of History, Taipei, 2012, p.218來源：香港佳士得，1993年3月22-23日，拍品570重要台灣私人收藏出版及著錄：《中國美術の精華：台北‧鴻禧美術館所藏品展》，松濤美術館，東京，2001年，頁92，編號106《清翫雅集廿周年慶收藏展》，國立歷史博物館，臺北，2012年，頁218This impressive dish belongs to a small and important group of cloisonné enamel wares bearing prominent enamelled Wanli marks within a rectangle and encircled by ruyi heads. As noted by Sir Harry Garner, they are of outstanding documentary importance as the only pieces with contemporary marks of sixteenth-century emperors that can be accepted without question as belonging to the period of the mark, see H.Garner, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels, London, 1962, i mark and period dishes of this size decorated with dragons are extremely rare, with only three other related examples which appear to have been published, including a large cloisonné enamel 'dragon' dish (51cm diam.) with a foliate rim in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in Theplete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, no.47; another dish (50cm diam.) in the British Museum, London, illustrated by H.Garner ibid., pl.F (,1227.79); and the third example of slightly smaller size (48cm diam.) in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasty, Taipei, 1999, no.11; Two futher Wanli mark and period cloisonné enamel dishes were sold in auctions: one was sold in these rooms (57cm diam.), 2 December 2021, lot 20; and another was sold at Hong Kong Christie's (49.6cm diam.), 30 May 2005, lot 1267.The dragons on the present dish appears to be the most brightly decorated one,pare to a Wanli cloisonné enamel incense burner decorated with dragons holding the shou character, the dragons are similarlyposed of vivid red and yellow enamels, illustrated inpendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Enamels 1, Beijing, 2011, no.99.盤折邊口，平底，銅胎掐絲鎏金。盤內外以藍色琺瑯釉為地，盤心飾雙龍穿花，二龍間以紅黃二色，五爪、卷草尾，龍身圍以紅、白、黃、藍色纏枝番蓮，蓮瓣裡外分四層四色，盤內飾連枝菊紋一周ᦁ...